Outside The 9-Box: A Holistic Approach to Talent Evaluation

Since the beginning of the new millennium, HR has progressively transformed from an administrative function to a strategic partner, helping managers maximize the collective potential of their people to drive their business priorities. However, despite the sweeping changes in HR in recent years — including a greater emphasis on well-being, flexibility, and diversity — one key tool for helping employees maximize their individual potential has remained relatively unchanged: the 9-box matrix.

Introduced in the 1970s by McKinsey & Company and made famous by General Electric, this simple tool continues to be a staple in talent assessment and succession planning. However, its limitations are becoming more apparent as the workforce grows more complex.

If talent truly is the most valuable resource, does the 9-box matrix still serve a purpose, or is it time to rethink how we assess and develop talent?

Flaws of the 9-Box Matrix

The 9-box matrix was originally introduced as a way to help companies prioritize investments across different business units. The tool allows users to evaluate employees using two factors that serve as the X/Y axes: their current performance and their future growth potential. The highest ranking is high performer/high potential and the lowest is low performer/low potential, with combinations in between those two extremes that often use the word “moderate.”

While this method is straightforward and familiar, it has several inherent limitations that can hinder an organization’s ability to manage its workforce dynamically. This tool, designed to help managers guide individuals in their personal transformation, is itself in need of transformation.

There’s one main reason the 9-box can now be rated itself as merely a low-to-moderate performer: The distinction between performance and potential is often unclear. How does anyone objectively measure potential? This ambiguity frequently leads to subjectivity and bias in evaluations.

Managers often confuse those two notions of performance and potential, assuming that strong performers today will excel in more complex future tasks and roles tomorrow. But everyone in HR knows that many (if not most) executives struggle to scale themselves as leaders when they take on bigger roles with more breadth and responsibilities. Moreover, many organizations spend valuable time debating how to deal with underperformers, rather than focusing on the high-potential employees who can drive future success.

Second, the matrix’s binary focus fails to account for critical aspects of modern work. It primarily assesses employees as individuals contributing to company goals but fails to account for their impact within teams or for their own personal motivations. This narrow view can lead to missed opportunities for employee growth, as it ignores how individuals contribute to team dynamics or how their unique aspirations could align with broader organizational goals.

The 9-box matrix may have been effective in a more stable era when companies operated in a linear manner. However, the complexities, fluidity, and integrated nature of business today introduce new dimensions to decision-making that the 9-box cannot capture.

Finally, in an era when agility and diversity are essential to organizational success, the 9-box grid’s rigid structure can feel outdated. New tools, driven by data and AI, offer more dynamic ways to assess talent, yet many companies are hesitant to move away from the familiar 9-box approach.

A Broader View of Talent: From 1 Lens to 3

To address the limitations of the 9-box model, organizations can adopt a more balanced approach to talent assessment, incorporating three key lenses: the business, the team, and the individual aspirations.

The Business Lens: Rethinking Performance and Potential

The business lens retains the fundamental approach of the 9-box, in that it assesses how well employees perform in their current roles and their ability to take on more complex positions. But this approach should go beyond simply promoting top performers to higher ranks. A more dynamic business lens needs to consider horizontal mobility, acknowledging that an employee’s potential might be best realized in a lateral move rather than an upward one.

Even those with strong potential to move into the most senior leadership roles can benefit from a lateral move earlier in their career to get exposure to different aspects of the business and demonstrate their agility and impact in different contexts. In fact, those lateral moves can include a rewarding stint in HR.

As just one example, Anne Mulcahy, the former CEO of Xerox, shifted from running sales to running HR to broaden her base of experience. “I’d always believed that human resources could be a very powerful part of an organization and often wasn’t,” she said in a 2009 interview with The New York Times. “So I kind of threw my hat in that ring [and] wound up running human resources for Xerox worldwide. That was a decision that certainly changed my career path and reinforced the power of leadership for me.”

To build a future-ready workforce, the business lens can include continuous feedback loops and frequent check-ins. Leaders should use data-backed performance reviews combined with human insight to ensure they are placing employees in roles where they can both succeed and contribute meaningfully.

We have all seen employees who struggle in a certain role but then thrive when moved to a different role, a phenomenon described as, “Right plant, wrong pot.” Ultimately, the business lens becomes far more effective when it reflects not just past performance but the evolving needs of the organization.

The Team Lens: Beyond Individual Contributions

In today’s increasingly collaborative work environments, it is critical to look beyond individual contributions and assess how employees function as members of a team. The team lens focuses on how employees contribute to team dynamics, support their colleagues, and help drive collective success.

The 9-box matrix tends to isolate employees, focusing on individual performance metrics that may not fully reflect their value in a team setting. An employee might be a moderate performer individually but excel in collaborative roles where they help others succeed. Conversely, a high performer might struggle with working in teams, undermining overall productivity. Integrating a team-based dimension into talent assessments ensures organizations can foster stronger, more resilient teams.

By emphasizing the team lens, leaders can identify key players who elevate others and create an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives thrive. This approach also aligns with inclusion and diversity goals, as it highlights employees who contribute to creating a supportive, inclusive team culture — a key factor in driving innovation and long-term success.

The Aspiration Lens: Understanding Personal Motivations

One of the most significant omissions in the 9-box matrix is its disregard for employees’ individual motivations. People come to work for various reasons, and understanding what drives each person can significantly impact engagement, retention, and overall performance.

The aspiration lens is informed by the concept of worker archetypes. Bain & Company identifies six primary archetypes: operators, givers, artisans, explorers, strivers, and pioneers. Each has unique motivations:

• Operators prioritize stability.
• Givers seek purpose.
• Artisans focus on mastery.
• Explorers crave variety.
• Strivers are driven by achievement.
• Pioneers look to create lasting impact.

For example, artisans value continuous improvement and autonomy, making them highly engaged when given opportunities to deepen their expertise. In contrast, givers might thrive in roles that emphasize collaboration and the well-being of others.

Recognizing and aligning these motivations with career paths not only boosts job satisfaction for employees but also enhances their contributions to the organization.

To create a holistic talent management system, organizations can further consider these diverse aspirations. Employees who feel understood and supported are more likely to be engaged, productive, and loyal, reducing turnover and fostering long-term success.

The ‘Balanced People Scorecard’

The solution to the 9-box matrix’s shortcomings is to create a Balanced People Scorecard that incorporates the business, team, and individual lenses. It provides a holistic view of an employee’s value and potential.

By balancing these perspectives, organizations can make better-informed decisions about talent development, ensuring that they are not only promoting the right people but also placing them in roles where they can thrive. This multi-lens approach encourages ongoing development, alignment with company goals, and a focus on employee well-being.

The future of talent management will depend on our ability to adopt these more nuanced and flexible models that reflect the complex reality of today’s workforce. The Balanced People Scorecard offers a way forward — one that integrates performance, potential, team dynamics, and personal aspirations into a unified framework for growth.

Transformation is a process, rather than a one-time event or a destination. As anyone leading or supporting a transformation knows, developing the strategy is the easy part. The real challenge lies in helping employees accept that the status quo is no longer an option, and that change is absolutely essential. Then, once employees are on board with the need for change, it is HR’s role to help managers ensure their people are placed in the right roles to maximize their impact in driving transformation.

It’s time to think outside the 9-box and implement a tool and approach that better matches the complexities and dynamism of today’s work environment..